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Seward County Community College will host a come and go holiday brunch from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, in the SCCC cafeteria. The cost is $6 and will include holiday music and an art display. The Saints Bookstore will open as well during that time.

Seward County Community College will hold two concerts this fall to close the fall 2007 semester.
The formal concert, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 30, will feature the Singing Saints Concert Choir, the SCCC Wind Ensemble and the Oklahoma Panhandle State University Choir.
The Pops Concert, featuring the Singing Saints Concert Choir and individual solos, will be at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 3.
Due to limited seating, call 620-417-1451 for tickets. Tickets are $2.

By Lacy Adams, SCCC student
With her obvious Minne-soh-ta accent drifting down the hall, it’s not hard to spot a fresh face working as the new dean at Seward County Community College this year: Celeste Donovan. With her kind eyes and warm smile one can sense that she will bring positive vibes to the college and work to do what is best in the interest of the college.
She said she is excited about her new position because “I get to hang out with the students and help them figure out what they want to do with their lives. I wake up feeling lucky that I enjoy going to work and feeling great about my job. The best feeling you can have is rising from your comfortable, warm bed and feeling genuinely good about your day’s work ahead of you.”
As dean of student services, Donovan will oversee student housing, admissions, financial aid, counseling, student records and registration and student activities.
All activities within those divisions are her primary responsibilities and she assists with all aspects of SCCC operations as a member of the administrative team, said Dr. Duane Dunn, SCCC president. She provides reports to the Board of Trustees, assists with various committees, provides recommendations for policy and procedures, and represents SCCC to the public and serves on professional committees. She is accessible to students for discussion of issues related to any of the divisions within her supervision as well as providing assistance in the absence of another administrator.
Donovan grew up in a smaller community so she understands what it means to be successful and productive. She believes in the mission of community colleges. She relates to and is more familiar with an enclosed, smaller setting. By the end of the year, what she wants from the students is for them to feel comfortable enough with her to drop by her office and see her about anything they feel they need to discuss. That’s what she hopes for and hopefully what she’ll receive.
She grew up in Menno, SD, in a community of 800 people. She was involved in track and basketball. She attended South Dakota University, which was a large school for her; she really had wanted a smaller community and atmosphere similar to a high school-like experience. She was on the Ladies Field Hockey Team and received her Bachelor’s of Science Degree. She also went to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned her Master’s of Science in 1986. In college her favorite courses were Psychology, Genetics, Abnormal Psychology, Team Building and Student Leadership activities.
Her father has always been a strong role model for her because he gave her many of her strong traits. He also gave her a love for music since he was a band director. She says that “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” sung by Judy Garland is one of her favorites. She lived on an Indian Reservation with her father and he also taught her how to acknowledge people’s strengths not their weaknesses.
Throughout college she worked at the Jefferson County Community Center as a Job Placement and Transitional Employment Specialist where she taught people with learning disabilities about how to find the right job and develop the right skills. She worked as a Career Vocational Placement Specialist at the Community College of Denver as well. She began a program that helped students with learning disabilities with their career choices and educated the others in her work force about the mentally disabled so that they could help as well.
Before coming to Seward County Community College she was the Dean of Students at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in Minnesota. She worked with financial aid, athletics, student support services, counseling, disability services, student senate and housing.
Outside of SCCC she enjoys playing the guitar, Dixie Chicks songs mostly, hanging out in the backyard with her husband, taking relaxing walks and occasionally jogging and camping. She met her husband, Kevin Donovan, while she was working as a director in counseling and career services at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely, Colo. She worked with students on team building, ethical decision-making and was the supervisor of 29 academic advisors.
Donovan said she doesn’t tend to jog as much as she used to but did finish in the top 100 women in the Pittsburgh Marathon.
Donovan thinks of herself as a “crazy” and a compassionate person and Seward County Community College should be proud to have her. She wants nothing more than for the students to feel at home, to feel comfortable and to develop a passion to succeed.
The college will benefit through her enthusiasm about student success, her experience at community colleges, her desire to have open communication with her staff, her creativity and ideas of how to continue to improve our college, and her genuine positive attitude about education and students, Dunn said.
“I knew from our first telephone conversation that I wanted to have her visit SCCC for an interview, and that was based on her positive outlook about the importance of strong student support services. After the interview I was sure that she would bring strong leadership, open communication, and creative ideas to help students.”

USD 480 has notified Seward County Community College of its intent to create an independent technical college. The two institutions have held discussions for over a year to consider merging Southwest Kansas Technical School, which is presently governed by USD 480, with the college.
Most recently, USD 480 declined SCCC’s offer to have a meeting with both boards to discuss the merger.
Legislation from the 2007 legislative session required technical schools to merge with another institution, become independent technical colleges or discontinue adult education programs. At the time, USD 480 and the college had agreed that a merger was the best option for the college and the community; however, a merger agreement was not finalized.

Trustees from the three community colleges of Southwest Kansas gathered Monday night in Dodge City to focus on issues ranging from state governance for technical education to shared programs and the potential for greater cooperation.
Their discussion also addressed funding for deferred campus maintenance, reductions in out-of-district tuition and fair distribution of state funds for higher education.
The gathering took place on the Dodge City Community College campus, drawing presidents and other administrative personnel from the host institution, as well as Liberal-based Seward County Community College and Garden City Community College.
Dr. Richard Burke, DCCC president, opened the session with a reference to the Dodge City-Garden City-Liberal area as the “golden triangle.”

DEFERRED MAINTENANCE
The discussion on deferred maintenance centered on recent state legislation that allows 60 percent tax credits designed to spur private donors to contribute funds to any of the 19 Kansas community colleges. Donated funds, Burke explained, may be used to upgrade and repair most campus facilities, with the exception of housing and athletic structures.
Parallel legislation also gives community colleges the option of taking out interest-free loans, over periods of up to eight years, to address deferred maintenance.
In addition, donations received under the tax credit option may be used for loan repayment, Dr. Duane Dunn, SCCC president, pointed out.
Kansas Senator Tim Huelskamp, also attending, advised the colleges to act quickly, saying the state’s universities, which have a different tax credit program, may take a different approach during the first two years it operates. The initial year will start July 1, 2008, and actually run just six months, with credits of up to $79,000 available. Larger amounts will be offered in future full-length years.
Dr. Carol Ballantyne, GCCC president, said she was pleased to learn that earlier restrictions had been eased on the use of the donation and loan funds, apparently making street and parking lot repairs eligible.
Jo Ann Sharp, who chairs the SCCC board, asked whether the credits are available to individuals only, or also to financial and other institutions. While learning that any such donors may contribute, she suggested focusing on individual donors, noting that they may be more likely to take ownership in the welfare of their local colleges.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION GOVERNANCE
Turning to governance of technical education, the three elected boards noted that Kansas had recently created the Technical Education Authority to guide the state’s five technical colleges and five vocational-technical schools. The authority, Burke noted, grew out of an initially formed technical education commission.
Creation of the commission came in response to requests by the technical colleges and schools, even though the 10 combined institutions provide only 23 to 25 percent of the technical education in the state. The other 75 to 77 percent is provided by the community colleges, including SCCC, DCCC and GCCC.
The Technical Education Authority now reports through a vice president to the executive director of the Kansas Board of Regents, and Burke credited the authority’s creation and growing status to political pressure from the Wichita area.
College personnel expressed concern about the organization, and Dunn said the community college presidents share the challenge of defining technical education at the state level, as well as educating and informing the commission and authority about the scope and breadth of technical education. He stressed that the heading covers an extensive series of learning services, ranging from welding to nursing and beyond, and noted that the definition should not be limited to industrial-related training.
Others in the group suggested part of that mission might be accomplished by getting authority and commission members onto the community college campuses to see programs first-hand.

OUT-OF-DISTRICT TUITION
Though not a new challenge, the group reviewed the status of out-of-district tuition too.
Out-of-district tuition, originally pegged at $24 per college credit hour, was once paid to each community college by the home county of any student who attended one of the 19 schools.
When the community colleges, which are primarily funded by property taxes in the counties where they’re located, became part of the Kansas Board of Regents under Senate Bill 345, the state began to gradually ratchet down the financial responsibility of the non-community college counties. Today, rather than $24 per credit hour paid by individual counties for non-resident students, the community colleges receive just $6 per credit hour, as part of state aid appropriations rather than from each county.
While no legislative remedies appear likely, Ballantyne asked whether DCCC, SCCC and GCCC should consider charging higher tuition for students from outside the home counties of the three schools. Neither GCCC nor SCCC is presently doing so, though DCCC has initiated such a policy.
The focus on the tuition issue led into consideration of ideas for revising the state formula for general budget aid to the 19 institutions.
Presently, state allocations are based on enrollment, and Dunn asked whether that arrangement is fair to community colleges serving areas with declining populations.
Burke, turning to Huleskamp, said additional funding would help address the disparity and asked whether a statewide sales tax could be instituted to provide community college dollars. Floris Jean Hampton, a DCCC trustee and former Regent, said the sales tax concept had been suggested years ago but never gained political momentum.

SHARING EFFORTS IN HEALTH CARE
Ballantyne opened discussion on the topic of shared programs, classes and instructors, citing the need for more learning opportunities in heath care fields -- a need that Hampton echoed as critical.
The GCCC president noted that her college already offers paramedic training on the other campuses, while SCCC provides instruction in respiratory technology for students in Garden City and Dodge City. However, she stressed, the colleges should try to address other medical training needs and possibly involve Colby Community College and Barton County Community College of Great Bend in the process.
“We all have a need for allied health care education at every level,” Ballantyne said.
One suggestion emerging from the discussion was to share instructors for the didactic portion of each college’s nursing program, since all three face difficulties finding enough master’s degree registered nurses to teach. While national nursing accreditation standards require a 10-1 student teacher ratio for clinical learning, the ratio is less stringent for classroom instructional components.
Dunn said the three Southwest Kansas schools and their partners in the EduKan online associate degree consortium already serve as a national model in sharing faculty personnel, and suggested similar principles might be applied in health care education. The other partners are CCC, BCCC and Pratt Community College.
He added, however, that national nursing accrediting agencies might balk at the sharing of nursing faculty personnel through a consortium arrangement.

SERVING THOSE IN NEED
The session opened with testimonials from two DCCC students about the value of their community college experiences, and closed with an unscheduled discussion about education for low-income, immigrant and Hispanic students.
“We need to work together in addressing poverty and the needs of these students,” Ballantyne said. Dunn agreed, noting that the number of first-generation students – those with no family experience in higher education – is rising across Southwest Kansas.
The Garden City president suggested all three colleges work more closely with the region’s high schools to help Hispanic and other immigrant families attain educational success. She added that the Kansas law allowing immigrant students to pay in-state college tuition serves as a powerful benefit, but still excludes some. Students quality if they show intention to gain citizenship, attend a Kansas high school at least three years, and earn a diploma or GED.
One challenge, Dunn noted, is that some students qualify for in-state tuition under the law, but still can’t receive federal financial aid.

By Lacy Adams, SCCC StudentDorothy, who is a well-known celebrity in Liberal, Kansas, continues to get the attention she deserves in a poem written by Bill McGlothing, a creative writing instructor at Seward County Community College. McGlothing’s poem, “The House of Twenty Dorothys” was recently published in Pittsburg State University’s the Midwest Quarterly, Summer 2007 Kansas Poetry Issue.
McGlothing, who has taught at SCCC for 10 years, said the motivation and inspiration for this poem was simply the pressure of feeling like a student in his own creative writing class.
Every year he has an exercise for the students in which he asks the students to write down random verbs, adjectives and nouns. These words are the only materials they must use to write a poem. This time, he chose to act as the student and asked his students to create a list of words for him to use in a poem. He became the student in his own class with pressure to meet the deadline for the assignment. Since he has lived in Liberal he has learned a lot about Dorothy’s House so he said the ideas began to flow from there. He thought that it was so interesting that the Dorothys working at the popular tourist site were required to pass tests and make their own outfits. They have 20 Dorothys at any given time. He used his knowledge of Dorothy’s House to write his poem.
Part of the poem reads:

The world comes to Dorothy’s House in Liberal, Kansas,
where twenty Dorothys vie to welcome all
to Oz. They stand tall, trained and tested, combat-ready,
each checkered dress inspection-crisp,
their ruby slippers, made themselves, click nervously,
await the day’s release, the squeal of squirmy children
from the lots, the coming of the pilgrims to the shrine.

“I’m a writing teacher,” he said. “That’s my job. Writing poetry has taken a backseat.” He said he focuses on teaching students more about creative writing and enjoys watching them grow and learn. Occasionally he brings his creative side out of the closet. Two summers ago at the Baker Arts Center he recited some of his poetry. Any kind of music gives McGlothing the ideas and inspiration he needs to be creative. He really writes only for himself and does not crave the spotlight or publicity for his poems.
His love of poetry and reading began at a young age. At 9, he started with Ray Bradbury stories and has continued to have his nose in a book ever since. He hardly ever saw his father read a book when he was young and his mother did not have the time until she was older. She was constantly asking her son for more recommendations of books. His initially inspiration for writing poetry came in high school when his best friend, who just happened to be a “jock,” wrote a few poems. “I said to myself well, if he can do it than I can do it. It was honestly pure, juvenile male motivation that started it.”
McGlothing received a Bachelor’s degree from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, majoring in English and German. He has master’s degree from the University of Oregon where he majored in English. He has taught for a total of 31 years and began as a graduate student at the University of New Mexico on a Navaho Reservation. While he was busy building adobe walls in Albuquerque he was asked to teach an English composition class to students of all ages and by the time he was done, had taught at every reservation in the state.
It was at a convention where he met fellow Seward County Community College English instructors, Dale Doll and Ann Judd, who told him of the opening at SCCC.
McGlothing met his wife, Janice, while she was a nontraditional student in his English class at Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas. He credits her for being a better writer than he is.
McGlothing said he loves to ride the country roads on his mountain bike. “I like to ride my butt off on my bike on the country roads and go 15-20 miles in a trip. I’ve composed poems, figured out problems with students and unwound after a long week while riding on my bike.” He enjoys clearing his mind and riding by himself but has occasionally gone on trips with Dr. John Loucks, Humanities Division chair at SCCC. He also spent seven weeks in Israel on an archaeological dig and is astounding at the change that has taken place since he was there in 1970. At the time, he felt so safe there before the suicide bombers. He could safely hike or walk wherever he wanted. Photography is also something that gives him pleasure and helps develop ideas for his poetry.
McGlothing has lived in larger cities throughout his life including Albuquerque and Denver, but now prefers only to visit them. He enjoys teaching students at SCCC and enjoys the peace of Liberal. The hometown of Dorothy’s House with its twenty Dorothys is where he’s happy to be.

The Kylix Art Club at Seward County Community College is sponsoring its Children’s Art Day from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 17 in the art room of the Shank Humanities Building for children in grades 1-6.
The cost is $10 and includes all supplies and drinks. Children are asked to bring a sack lunch.
Please reserve a space by contacting Art Instructor Susan Copas by Friday, No. 16 at 620-417-1453 or susan.copas@sccc.edu.

Seward County Community College will present “One Survivor Remembers: An Evening with Holocaust Survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein” at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 13, in the showcase theater. This will be a live web broadcast presentation of Klein as she discusses information related to her experience as a survivor of the Nazi holocaust. The presentation, hosted by MAGPI K20, is free to the public. Klien received an Oscar award from the Academy of Motion Pictures for a documentary based on her life,.
MAGPI K20 describes Klein’s life as one of bravery, determination, and strength. “In 1939, 15-year-old Gerda Weissmann Klein’s life would change forever as German troops invaded her home in Beilsko, Poland. This day would be forever ingrained in her memory, as it was the last time she would ever see her family. Never losing hope, Klein would spend the next three years in a succession of slave-labor camps, until she was forced to walk in a 350-mile death march in which 2,000 women were subjected to exposure, starvation, and arbitrary execution. Despite such atrocities, Klein never lost the will to survive. Klein’s account of living through the Holocaust is documented in her classic autobiography, All But My Life, in print for 46 years in 57 editions. It was the foundation for the Oscar Winning HBO Documentary One Survivor Remembers.”
SCCC is pleased to make this program available to the public as part of the International Education Week activities. Program participants may have the ability to submit questions to Klein during the presentation. For additional information, visit the MAGP K20 website at http://www.magpi.net/programs/.